LOLhack
I really shouldn't have done this, but once I had the idea, I had to follow through.
It's January 1, and time for the traditional consultation with the iPod oracle regarding the new year. Drawing ten songs at random and interpreting them as in a Celtic Cross tarot reading (key here), I get,
Wow. I don't think any commentary is needed here. Sometimes it's just too obvious...
YARR! It be Talk Like A Pirate Day! Traditionally (ok, just last year), I announce the Pirate Song of the Year today, but I can't think of any sufficiently piratical songs that have come out this year. However, we are taking nominations in the comments.
Instead, we open a new category: The Pirate Film of the Year.
Gore Verbinski, present yerself at the foredeck!
For the achievement of Pirate Film So Reportedly Lame I Didn't Bother Seeing It (of the Year), ye are rewarded with a one-way voyage to Davy Jones' Locker. Feed him to the sharks!
*splash*
And now, the Pirate Film of the Year: Stardust. An extra share of booty fer Neil Gaiman, Matthew Vaughn, and Robert De Niro! ARRR!
Elsewhere, Chris Bertram warns not to try talking like a pirate in Bristol, where they talk like this all the time.
Today is Albert Einstein's birthday. It's also Pi Day, but like T-Rex I prefer Pi Approximation Day on July 22, not to mention Euler's Number Day on February 71.
When I was advised to Google "March 14th" I expected something related to the above, but the first result reveals something else entirely.
This post by Mason inspired me to make a Dinosaur Comic:
Noninertial theology (Image is behind the link because it's too wide for the blog template.)
The thesis in question was by Richard Packard, who is a Berkeley physics professor. I can only hope decades from now somebody will be writing Dinosaur Comics about my thesis.
Over coffee I and another grad student had a brilliant innovation: an electric guitar with SQUID pickups! Due to the high sensitivity and low noise of the SQUID, we expect the sound quality to be extremely good. Of course, the guitar will have to be filled with liquid nitrogen (we're assuming high-Tc SQUIDs here) or equipped with a cryocooler. The LN2-filled guitar would have the advantage of producing plumes of fog on demand, and would be especially spectacular when smashed against the stage at the end of the show.
I just noticed that I've only posted four times in the month of October. Um... here's a Friday Random 10! (If only I had some cat pictures...)
This is from the four-and-five-star playlist, which accounts for the very high quality of the selection.
Purify the colors, purify my mind.
Purify the colors, purify my mind,
and spread the ashes of the colors
in this heart of mine.
Via Dynamics of Cats, the "dwarf planet" whose discovery led to Pluto's demotion has been named Eris, losing its previous informal name of Xena. Steinn responds with an appropriate "Hail Eris!", but then wonders if dwarf planets should have dwarf names.
As a sometime-admirer of the Goddess (one of the patron deities of Kaos Alley), I am pleased to see her recognized here, even if it is a dinky little dwarf planet. (At least it has an appropriately eccentric orbit.) In her honor, I suggest going bowling, eating hotdogs (especially tomorrow), or generally doing something chaotic. Initiates can go here, and click randomly in the table of contents.
Via Pharyngula, the Bad Astronomy blog finds a wingnut who thinks that this naming choice is... a vicious liberal attack on George W. Bush. His argument is based on the fact that the Caltech is in California and therefore must be a major liberal enclave. I would like to propose a slightly more plausible theory, in which the game Illuminati is an accurate representation of world affairs, and the Discordian Society has just added the IAU to their power structure.
Saturday afternoon a zombie invasion hit San Francisco. Unfortunately I was completely unaware of this, otherwise Josh and I would have gone to see it. I'll have to get on the mailing list for the next one. Naturally the zombies eventually ended up at the Apple Store. (Via Boing Boing.)
I didn't watch any of the soccer game today, but Yglesias is right: that headbutt is awesome. Obviously I should have watched the game so I could have seen that moment.
(This is obvious filler while I finish getting the new site ready. I hope to move things over tonight, where "tonight" may technically end up being "tomorrow". But there have been lots of distractions the last few days.)
I had been debating whether to fly out to Connecticut this summer to visit friends, and if I do so, whether to take some extra time to tour New York City. Fortunately the internet came to the rescue with a trio of relevant posts:
Slate worries about the dangers of helium. Yes, innocent, inert helium. Apparently, you might pass out and hit your head on something. Maybe next Slate will do an article on the threat of the liquid phase, on the grounds that it's really cold. I once took a spray of liquid helium full in the face—it was cool and refreshing!
Spotted no fewer than six U-Haul trucks on a half-mile stretch of Oxford St. Must be moving day.
I was having problems with my iPod for a while but got it working again. It was eerie to walk into a Jamba Juice, take off my headphones, and discover that the song I was just listening to was also playing on the store's speakers. (It was Mylo's "Drop The Pressure".)
On the first leg of my plane trip I was seated next to a guy named Kerry Edwards. Someone alert Jeffrey Rowland that he may have a primary challenge from someone else who is trying to save money on bumper stickers.
I'm not normally a squeamish person, but this Slate article on what to do if your eyeball falls out of its socket did me in. I had to go to Cute Overload for a chaser.
Also, it's Albert Einstein's 127th birthday today. There's a lot of talk on Mixed States about "Pi Day" but this is contingent on the American convention for writing dates. Those countries that write the day first can instead celebrate "Pi Approximation Day" on July 22 (22/7).
While we toil away on our experiments in Birge Hall, the works of our mathematical colleagues in neighboring Evans become ever more mysterious.
The Sarong Theorem Archive: This page is an electronic archive of images of people proving theorems while wearing sarongs.
So what theorem would you choose when preparing a photo for this page? I would go with the proof of the error bound on Simpson's Rule, but I should give Mason first dibs on that.
Via Bitch, Ph.D.
Sort of like Overheard In New York, but with more sun and audience participation.
Scene: Saturday afternoon. I am walking on campus, on the path that runs along the south side of Strawberry Creek, near Haas Pavilion. I am accosted by a guy walking the other direction, who is not obviously a hobo.
Guy: Hey, do you know where I can find [unintelligible]?
AG: I'm sorry?
Guy: A gas station.
AG: There's one on Oxford, by—
Guy: Which way?
AG: [gesturing] Over there, down the—
Guy: [indicating my shirt, which is partly obscured by my jacket] Does that say "Mardi Gras"?
AG: No, it—
Guy: Oh, "marathon".
AG: Y—
Guy: Wanna go smoke a bowl?
AG: No—
Guy: Oh, you don't smoke weed?
AG: No—
Guy: Mushrooms?
AG: No.
Guy: Can I borrow a couple of dollars?
AG: Sorry. The gas station's that way.
Weird encounters are pretty common in this city, but this one was notable for combining nearly every weird aspect of Berkeley into a single (one-sided) conversation. I don't know which of the proposed chemicals he had consumed already, but something was clearly affecting his attention span.
I heard about this beforehand from three separate sources, and really wanted to go, but unfortunately had a group meeting.
Hundreds attend mass pillow fightRoughly 1,000 people drawn by internet postings and word-of-mouth converged near San Francisco's Ferry Building on Tuesday night for a half-hour pillow fight.
The underground event erupted at 6 p.m. in the center of Justin Herman Plaza with a mass rush of shrieking, laughing combatants - many of whom arrived with pillows concealed in shopping bags, backpacks and the like.
Within minutes, pillows were arcing, feathers were flying, and by the time the Ferry Building's clock tower clanged the half-hour, the plaza and hundreds of people were covered in white down that gave the scene a wintry lustre.
Via a comment at Crooked Timber, I learn that the Bible uses a unit of weight called the "homer", which, literally translated, means: "an ass-load". No, seriously:
The word homer comes from a Hebrew word which means 'ass-load'. It may have been the amount that donkey could carry. The quail which fell in the wilderness were measured using the homer. The Homer or Cor contained 10 ephahs. Ezekiel 45:11,14 That would make it equal to about 6 bushels.
"Are you suggesting coconuts migrate?"
"Not at all. They could be carried."
Via Boing Boing.
This would be a good shirt to wear to my March Meeting talk, if t-shirts were appropriate attire. Oh well. Maybe my next group seminar, then. (Via Pharyngula, naturally.)
This made my day yesterday: the Mario question blocks distributed around the UC Berkeley campus.
This one is at Sather Gate. There was another hanging from a tree by Wheeler Hall, but it either fell or was taken (or somebody jumped and hit it with his head, and then took the item).
This link is of course mean, cruel, and shallow, not to mention that it takes aim at some extremely easy targets. But when I was feeling frustrated by my experiment today, it's amazing how much my spirits were lifted by The First Annual MySpace Stupid Haircut Awards. (Via memepool.)
It's hard to avoid encountering amusing and interesting t-shirt designs on the web, but never before have I instantly bought one. I could not, however, resist the tentacled pull of this pirate vs. squid shirt. (Via Pharyngula.) Apparently my work with SQUIDs has caused me to develop an appreciation for actual cephalopods.
Another instant purchase will be the Scary Go Round playing cards, as soon as they go on sale.
Arcane Gazebo at an
empty table and other hand,
my memory of
dumbassery as
a hotel
room, often a GR
course? of
sleep paralysis.
Bush, supports
it seems more I have remarked
that explains the false impression that could potentially
replace it: Photo back in the
Dance is from the dream which
upon dreaming of Buffy,
but now naturally
I order Earl Grey, Hot The phone.
What this can
only three weeks late.
with this: week. The instructions on a
profound description In Italy.
